Track Limits decide British Championships
The Final round of the Iame British championship took place at Whilton Mill, a track which has already become notorious for its strict track limits. The two main zones where track limits are penalised are the Ashby hairpin and final corner passing the pits.
For the British Championship weekend, the organisers introduced a new zone at the exit of Crook which some drivers were extremely upset about. The way in which the track limits were penalised was criticised for being too strict. A first offence was a warning, 2nd was a 5 second penalty and a 3rd saw a driver excluded from the race.
As a result, over the course of the weekend, a total of 126 drivers were excluded over the course of the weekend, including 23 drivers in the first Junior X30 final on Saturday. On top of that a total of 213 penalties were handed out just for track limits. The mass exclusions played havoc with the results, meaning that the championships were pretty much decided in some classes.
That pretty much decided the Junior X30 championship in the favour of Oliver Gray. It also had a huge effect in crowning Harley Keeble the British champion as season long rival Kean Nakamura-Berta was disqualified from Saturday’s final. Harry Burgoyne Jnr took a pair of victories which saw him move up to 2nd to make it an ORM 1-2 in the cadets.
The Mini X30 class saw Theo Micouris attempt to do his very best to stop Oliver Greenall claiming the crown. But Greenall’s victory on Saturday put pay to that, despite Micouris taking victory in the final round of the season. The Croc Promotions driver missed out on the championship by just 7 points at the end.
The Senior X30 title went down to the wire. Changeable conditions made the Whilton Mill circuit extremely slippy. Which saw Thomas Turner spin out from the lead in the final while championship rival Danny Keirle was falling down the order. Keirle ended up 4th, his lowest finish of the season, but it was enough to claim the title thanks to Turner’s spin, which left him 3rd when the flag fell. Victory went the way of Thomas Flemming on his debut in the championship.
There is still one more British Championship round left to go. Once again it will be held at Whilton Mill, this time for the TKM and Honda cadet classes. Hopefully, those drivers will have seen the events of last weekend and avoid those harsh track limits.
